Antilombax One
by noobenheimer
Summary: An alien race has overpowered the Solana galaxy, establishing their own government. Ratchet and the resistance take up arms against their new authority.
1. Point Insertion

To keep things from getting confusing, I will leave reviewer responses for my other fic on that fic.

The train came to a screeching halt at the station platform. "Well," sighed a blargian, one of the only three people on the train, "end of the line."

All three wore a standard civilian uniform: blue shirt and pants. On the shirt was a faint white bar with an identification number.

The passengers stood and walked up to the door and waited for it to open. When it did, they stepped out onto a small, metal platform. Two of the group walked down the ramp and disbanded. Ratchet stayed on the platform and viewed his surroundings. He was in roofless train station. The sky poured in light between the tall buildings and trees, resulting in shady patches along the walkway.

Ratchet stepped down the ramp and continued on his way. He felt the glare of the oppressive race known only as the Bind, an unknown humanoid race. Their identity was anonymous to everyone due the black uniforms and grey gasmasks they wore. Perhaps they can't breathe oxygen?

Ratchet had no idea where he was or where he was going. The Bind had overpowered the galaxy's military so quickly that the Phoenix was overthrown and all survivors were forced into their new civilization. Either this or face a firing squad.

Ratchet arrived at a Bind checkpoint and stepped up to the chain link gate and was stopped by a Bind law enforcement officer.

"Step over here," he ordered in a stern, gravely voice.

"What did I do?"

"Just do it!"

They stepped to the side and into and alley. The officer pulled off the mask, revealing a lombax face. "You're Ratchet! I thought they killed you."

"Do I know you?"

"I worked on the Phoenix, but I managed to get a uniform. I'm working undercover for the resistance."

Footsteps could be heard getting closer.

"Oh, no! If they find out they'll kill me! Hurry, get up that ladder. Just keep going until you find Al's lab."

Ratchet did as was instructed, climbing a fire escape ladder. He opened the door at the top and entered the building. Where was he going? He wanted to turn around and ask where it was he needed to go, but he couldn't risk getting spotted. He was in a hallway in a run-down apartment building.

"Hey, you!" someone whispered, peeking out a door. "Come here."

Ratchet looked around, saw there was nobody else in the hall, and walked over to beckoner.

"What?"

"The Bind is raiding this apartment. Get to the roof," he pointed to a door.

"Run! Their killing everyone on this block!" came a voice from the hallway.

Ratchet flung open the door and both of them stepped onto a narrow wooden stairway. "Go, I'll hold the door shut!"

Ratchet started up the stairs, round a corner and more stairs. He heard a splintering sound, indicating the door was down. There were two gunshots then the sound of hostile entities coming up the stairs after him.

The top of the stairs opened up into an attic. The far wall was collapsed, leading out onto a flat roof. As Ratchet stepped out, a bullet whizzed by, exploding a piece of the wall next to him. His only option was to hop through a window.

He found himself in a short hallway with a door on either end. In the center of the hallway, a metal gate blocked a hole in the wall where a lift ran.

Ratchet tried both doors but they were locked. He ran over to the gate, pressed the button and waited for the lift to arrive. Suddenly, both doors were bashed down and in flooded two Bind officers from both doors, each wielding electric batons. Before Ratchet could make a move, a baton was smacked over his head, rendering him unconscious.


	2. A Red Letter Day

"Oooh. My head," Ratchet moaned.

"Hey, Ratchet. You feeling okay?"

Ratchet opened his eyes and saw Sasha leaning over him.

"Sasha? What are you doing here? What happened?" He saw the Bind laying unconscious throughout the hallway. "Did- did you do that?"

Suddenly, from outside, an alarm went off and a female computerized voice chimed in, "Citizen, you are charged with evasion of civil protection unit number 132."

"Uh oh," said Sasha. "We'd better get you outta here."

She helped Ratchet to his feet and stepped into the lift which was now waiting for its passengers. After Ratchet stepped in the enclosed elevator, she pressed the down button. The doors slammed shut, coming inwards from the sides and the elevator lurched downward.

Upon reaching its destination, the doors opened again, releasing them out into a musty, devoid concrete room.

Sasha stepped up to a metal power box and felt around on the bottom. After finding what she was looking for, a switch, the whole wall rumbled to the left, opening a small hallway.

"We just finished testing a teleporter we built from scratch. It's designed to get us from here to the lab my dad is heading up. The only route we have right now is through the old canals. It's getting too dangerous to go through that way, so we had to come up with an alternate method."

After they reached the end of the hallway, the entered a room similar to the previous. There were two water vending machines to the left.

"This is a resistance, right? When do we get to fight the Bind?" asked Ratchet.

"Well, we don't want to go out in the street and start shooting the cops. The Bind have control over everything. We're just waiting for the right time."

"Oh. Okay."

Sasha approached the vending machine on the right and pressed the buttons in some sort of combination. The front panel swung outward, turning the machine into a doorway.

"After you," Sasha gestured to the door.

Ratchet stepped through into the laboratory. A desk jutted out from the middle of the south wall, containing a few computer monitors and a seismograph. Beyond this desk sat three large vats arranged in a triangle. Inside each vat bubbled an orange liquid.

Against the far side of the left wall, security monitors displayed the perimeter of the lab. Against the rest of the left wall, blank computer monitors and other scientific equipment rested on a long desk.

Al was digging through a crate in the center of the room.

"Well, is everything ready, Al?" asked Sasha.

"Yes. Good to see you again, Ratchet. We'll be sending you through after Sasha. She did explain the situation, right?"

"Yea. You built it from scratch; you sure it'll work?"

"Ratchet, please remember that _I,_" Sasha glared at him, "oh, I mean _we _built it."

"Right," Ratchet said with a look of uncertainty. "Where's Clank?"

"He's at the other lab."

The same door that Ratchet and Sasha came through opened and in stepped the lombax in the Bind uniform minus the mask.

"Well, is he here?" he asked, then looked at Ratchet, "Ah, good." Then to Al he said, "Look, we'd better get him outta here before he attracts the damned civil protection."

"I suppose so. Okay, Ratchet. We have a Mark 5 HEV suit for you. Nick over here will retrieve it for you."

"Well," said the lombax, "I have to get back to my shift, but okay."

He walked to a tin garage door on the far wall next to the security monitors and typed a code into the pad next to it. The door slid up and inside was an orange suite that looked to be made of rubber. The suit was fully enclosed except for a lack of helmet or any headgear and a hole in the back for Ratchet's tail.

It was encased in a glass tube-like container. Nick typed in a code into another pad next to the container and the glass was lifted into the ceiling.

"There ya go. Just put it on over your civies," said Nick.

After a moment or two and some assistance in getting into the suit, Ratchet was ready to go.

"Al, we don't have time to mess around," said Nick, who was examining the security screens. "A group of civil protection just passed here." He pointed to a monitor.

"Oh dear. Yes, let's get going then."

Al walked to the east wall and straitened out a picture of the crew on the Phoenix before Ratchet became captain, so it included Sasha.

A panel on the support beam next to him opened and a retinal scanner popped out. Al put his face up to it and it read his retina. It concluded that this was Al and allowed him to pass. A door-sized piece of the wall slid left silently.

Inside, Al climbed a ladder on the left up to a platform on which a computer and other control devices where at his disposal. A window behind him filled the small room with light. Overhead hung a car-sized, egg-shaped metal contraption. And, on the right, a lift that only rose about five feet.

Sasha stepped onto the lift and said, "Ready."

Al's hands flew across the keyboard and a gate rose up in front of the lift. The lift itself started its ascent and halted abruptly at the top. Three metal bars held up by seemingly nothing started spinning around Sasha with alarming speed.

Suddenly a monitor flicked on and the president, or at least the former president, said, "We're all ready on this end."

"Good. We'll send Sasha through, then. Ratchet, flip that switch down there, would you?"

Ratchet did as he was instructed; flipping a switch next to the door they entered through. A beam of light shot from the egg structure into a receiver above the lift. There was a flash of light and Sasha was gone.

"Did it work?" Nick asked the president.

"See for yourself," he replied.

Sasha walked into view on the monitor and said cheerfully, "It works!" She gave her dad a quick kiss on the cheek and walked off.

"Alright Ratchet, you turn."

Ratchet took his place on the platform as it ascended and the three bars started their high speed flight.

"Nick, if you would."

Nick flipped the switch that Ratchet had for Sasha. Suddenly and alarm went off and the egg started rumbling and vibrating.

"What's going on?" Ratchet asked in an alarmed tone.

"I don't know," replied Al. "It must be overheated."

"Well get me down from here!"

"I can't! It won't shut down."

Ratchet suddenly found himself in an open field. Then, just as suddenly, he was at his intended destination. Sasha, Clank, the president, and another person Ratchet didn't recognize all had their eyes on him.

"Something is drawing him away," said Clank.

Ratchet was now submerged under water. He couldn't move. Something was still holding onto him. He heard a growl. Then, from the murky water a creature closely resembling a shark was swimming full speed at him with its mouth wide open. Just when he thought he was fish food, he was drawn away again, this time just outside the window behind Al.

"Where did he go?" Al asked the GP.

"Behind you," Nick replied for him.

Al turned and yelped. "Ratchet, get out of here! Run!" He closed the blinds, leaving Ratchet by himself.

"Hey! What's going on?"

He turned around and saw a small, round flying robot hovering overhead. It let of a blinding flash of light. Ratchet rubbed his eyes and looked back up. The robot was now flying off.

"Oh no!" he thought. "That thing just took my picture!"

He ran to a chain-link gate and threw it open. On the other side his only exit was boarded shut.

"Up here!"

Ratchet looked up at Nick on a platform. "Look, your going to have to get to the lab on foot. It's dangerous, but there's a whole network of refugees and they'll help you out. This is the only weapon I have to offer." He dropped a wrench down and it clattered to the ground in front of Ratchet. "Good luck." And with that he walked through a door and out of sight.

Ratchet picked up the wrench.

"Great," he sighed.


	3. Officer Down

Ratchet examined his new wrench. It was an omniwrench 8000, exactly like his old one. This one was slightly worn, however, with scuffs and scratches here and there.

He brought it down hard on one of the wooden planks blocking his path through the doorway in the link fence. The board splintered in half and fell to the ground. He repeated the process with three more slats and continued through.

The fence continued on the left accompanied by a brick wall to the right, creating a hallway of sorts with a makeshift roof crafted of wooden planks. Looking past the fence, he saw that he was walking along an elevated path above a train yard.

He reached the end of the tunnel, as shown by the brick on the right making a sudden left. The last section of the fence was knocked down. Just as Ratchet was about to jump down into the train yard, he heard a familiar beeping noise. The same type of camera that had taken his picture before rounded the corner. It was quickly smashed thanks to Ratchet's quick reaction.

He waited for a moment to make sure there was nothing else coming, then hopped down about six feet onto a wooden crate which smashed under the force of Ratchet's fall. He lost his balance from the unexpectancy and tumbled onto his back. He quickly recovered once he heard the grinding voice of the Bind yell "There he is!"

About thirty meters the right, on the uprisen side of the train yard, two bind police officers drew their weapons, one also shooting a red flare into the sky.

Ratchet couldn't move forward; a long train blocked his path. He ran to the left and found an alcove in the concrete wall. There was a small wooden crate on the ground. It was marked simply "supplies". He smashed it and a small, square power unit, the size of a C cell battery, clattered out. It was a power cell for his HEV suit. He picked it up and inserted the output into a charging unit in the chest of his suit. After a few moments a digitized computer voice chimed in "Power is at fifteen percent."

He removed the battery and tossed it to the ground. Refocusing on evading the Bind, he looked for his escape. One of the cars of the train had its doors hanging wide open. He ran from the alcove to the car directly across from him and jumped inside as bullets exploded the ground and wall and sparked against the metal surface of the train.

There was a door on the other side but the car was full of old mattresses, crates, wooden pallets, and other miscellaneous junk. He began smashing his way to the other side, wrench flying full force.

Before exiting, he looked for his next route. A set of empty tracks separated him and another train. The train went down the left pretty far. His best bet was to go right. He hopped out and the second he stepped on the dirt, a train blared its horn. It was on its way down the empty tracks, headed in the same direction as Ratchet needed to go. He pressed himself against the idle train from which he just left.

The train rushed past, sending small scraps and papers flying in the wind. After the last car went by, he ran behind it, hoping it would cover him from Bind eyes. It didn't work, though. Small _pops_ could be heard accompanied by the clang of the shot hitting nearby metal siding. He quickly reached the end car of the train blocking his passage and rounded it.

Yet another train blocked his next advancement. He took another left and ran between the two, finding another open car. This one had a ladder leading up to the roof of the car but no other door. He clambered up and onto the roof. He saw his escape: a door on the other side of a chain fence. He jumped to another train and from this location down onto the grass on the near the door. He rolled to lessen the impact and kept running through the door. Inside was a dark, straight, cement stairway leading down. He felt his way down the narrow stairway to the botton.

"What are you doing? Stop it! Somebody please help!"

Ratchet quickly rounded a corner to see a badly beaten male cazar with his upper back propped against the wall. Another, probably his wife, was yelling for help; two Bind cops were standing over the cazar. One raised his baton and struck him across his face. Ratchet ran up and whacked the Bind officer over the head, instantly killing him. A high pitch squealing sound emitted from the downed officer, signaling for backup. The other fumbled with a pistol holster but couldn't get it out in time.

"Are you okay?" Ratchet asked.

Ignoring Ratchet's question, the cazar knelt down next to her deceased spouse and sobbed, "Now they'll be after you. There's nothing more you can do here. You'd better just go."

She wiped her eyes with her forearm and Ratchet opened his mouth to speak but she said, "Please. Just go."

He picked up the Bind officer's pistol, a nine millimeter USP Match. With a sigh and a last glance at the mourning cazar, he stepped through the exit door. He realized that he had just inflicted the first casualties in the fight against the Bind.

**I contemplated for a while over whether to use rac or hl2 weapons. I decided to go with both. I know I'm not supposed to put reviewer responses here but I dunno why I didn't think to use a wrench instead of a crowbar. Thx for the tip, random rac fan.**


End file.
